Date of Award

Summer 2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Program/Concentration

Mechanical Engineering

Committee Director

Sebastian Bawab

Committee Director

Stacie Ringleb

Committee Member

Claude Anderson

Call Number for Print

Special Collections; LD4331.E56 D515 2008

Abstract

Most patients escape diagnosis of subtalar joint instability for years before treatment. Therefore, a clinically relevant technique to diagnose subtalar joint instability will improve its management. Towards this goal, a six degree of freedom positioning and loading device was developed to apply physiologic loads to the hindfoot. Because the ideal loading configuration to detect subtalar joint instability is unknown, the device was designed to apply rotational and translational forces simultaneously. Specifically, plantarflexion/dorsiflexion, inversion/eversion, and internal/external rotation can be applied individually or as coupled motions along with an anterior/posterior drawer. Kinematic data were collected from calcaneus, talus and tibia using a Polhemus LIBERTY"M (Polhemus, Inc., Colchester, VT) by keeping all the ligaments intact, and by sectioning anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL), calcaneofibular ligament (CFL), cervical ligament and interosseous ligament in sequence. Euler angle analysis was conducted to identify the instability using The MotionMonitor™ (Innovative Sports Training, Chicago, IL) and custom developed Matlab (The Mathworks, Natick, MA) programs. The ATFL and CFL contributed to ankle (i.e., the joint between the tibia and talus) instability, similar to previous studies. The interosseous ligament was the major ligament that contributes to subtalar joint (i.e., the joint between the talus and calcaneus) instability. The hindfoot (calcaneus and tibia) showed significant increase when the ankle and/or subtalar joint was unstable. Therefore, examining hindfoot kinematics alone, as performed in a physical examination, is not sufficient to diagnose subtalar joint instability.

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DOI

10.25777/zf6s-hp22

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